TWENTY

                                    

                                          
"Oh no, babe, that's my glass..." Ruby stopped my hand putting her fingers around my wrist gently and took the glass full of blood that I was about to lean on my lips, leaving it on the chequered tablecloth carefully before handing me my own glass that was full of wine. 
                          
"I'm sorry, love, thank you..." The beautiful vampire shook her head, smiling amused, and kissed my cheek before turning around to grab another chunk of cheese and bread. I sipped my wine absentmindedly, happy because I'd saved myself the embarrassment of my life spitting blood in front of everybody, while Terra was smoking a cigarette relaxed next to me, sat on the sand. The sun was setting on the horizon and there was still light in the sky but the powerful vampires around me didn't seem bothered by it as long as they wore sunglasses and some clothes even if it was a light cotton shirt, my girls never walked around wearing bikinis the way Vera and I did although I didn't care since Terra used to spend half of the day with her shirt unbuttoned and I saw her gorgeous and perky breasts whenever I wanted. 
                          
Antonella had prepared a banquet for us that she put in several picnic baskets and Marcus picked out a quiet corner to have dinner on the beach, protected from view by some rocks since it wasn't a private beach despite the villa had direct access. But humans were nowhere to be seen at that time of day because it was still too soon, the end of March, for tourists to go there en masse and vampires were able to manipulate their victims' minds anyway forcing them to go away and forget they'd seen them. Aren and Vera were playing near the shore, the tall Viking was taking his girlfriend in his arms and pretended he was throwing her to the water but he always caught her at the last second even before her butt grazed the cold sea and she punched his shoulder with her closed fist. They looked like two kids having fun but I couldn't help smiling, I'd never seen Vera so happy and relaxed before and that was the thing that mattered to me. 
                          
"This vacation was a great idea..." I whispered while Aren chased his girl pretending to be too slow to catch her. Terra put out her cigarette on an empty plate, drank the last sip of blood from her glass and lied down on the sand leaning her head on my lap, closing her eyes. 
                          
"I agree with you," she mumbled and sighed satisfied when I stroked her dark locks of hair, brushing them away from her forehead, while her sister picked out a ripe, juicy and absolutely perfect strawberry for me and she ate the ones that didn't meet her rigorous quality standards. I chewed winking at her and looked at my father-in-law who was sat on the other side of the tablecloth. 
                          
"Are you still angry at me, Marcus?" I asked with sarcasm. 
                          
"No, because you've baked a delicious cheesecake for me but I can't believe you despise Phidias..." The attractive vampire answered frowning while pouring more wine for his partner, who was chuckling. 
                          
"I never said that, I've said I prefer Lysippos among Greek classic sculptors, his statues are more stylized..."
                          
"I thought you'd prefer Praxiteles" Dario winked at me and Terra chuckled from my lap although she never moved from her comfortable position. I tickled her nose and she took my hand at vampire speed, putting it on her chest carefully. 
                          
"Of course, the first artist who dared to sculpt a completely naked woman as a goddess and it was the cause of an epic scandal in Athens... He was brave, I'm not denying it." I released my hand from my girl's fingers and slid it up till rubbing her jaw with my thumb. "And what do you prefer, Dario?" The blond vampire looked at the sky where the first stars were shining, lost in his thought, before shrugging. 
                          
"I prefer Roman sculptors, actually, those realistic and expressive portraits that allow you to watch the soul and personality of those patricians..." 
                          
"You know what? You aren't the first archaeologist telling me that, you're all obsessed with finding a window to the soul of the inhabitants of the old world... It's an irony that you ended up living with one of those Romans that sat for a sculpted portrait looking very serious wearing a toga or legionary armour like Marcus, for example. Was he what you expected?"